“When you only focus on DC and Marvel for diversity, you will always be disappointed…”

Hold up, hold up… In addition, the research of this article is mad faulty. Black Panther under utilized? My man has been a B+/A- list character since the Marvel Knights launch, Bradley was the recipient of the first version of the Super Soldier serum, no mention of DC’s roster or Milestone?

Nope. Couldn’t take the article seriously at all…

The core conceit of race and gender bending to create “diversity” was on point, but the sheer sloppiness in terms of research and myopic thinking concerning the “solutions” to the “problem” in this post destroys whatever credibility the writer is trying to establish.

For real, I’m tried of the bitching for bitching’s sake when it comes to a lot of this “reporting.” If you don’t acknowledge what has come before and really investigate what is happening currently (it ain’t hard… it’s called research), you’re just wasting energy flapping your gums…

On the flip side…

This paper written by JD Boucher is quite possibly one of the most informed and nuanced pieces I’ve ever read concerning the presence of race in comics. Insightful, provocative and engaging, this is a must read… A must read… For anyone who calls themselves a fan of comics and social issues. At 80 pages, it’s a quick-ish read, but it will change your perception, and conversation, of comics and issues of identity… Perhaps forever. Download it for free.

The way social media is used to assassinate character nowadays is insidious. I was wondering why this was brought to the fore now as opposed to years ago. Hearing about the court case puts everything into perspective…

I imagine that your response to Ms. Dolezal’s outing is similar to some whites when they discovered that those that they thought were white were actually passing as well. If we want to link it to entertainment, that was a key plot line to such books, and films, like Devil In A Blue Dress, An Imitation of Life, Pinky, Trick Baby, etc.

What makes her story so problematic is her extreme appropriation of “race,” culture and color in order to prove herself an ally to the cause. In fact, she benefitted from this “transformation” in ways people of African descent never could to the point of trying to check people who were born into the social strata based on skin color on their level of “Blackness” or whatever. The lack of authenticity that she perpetuated is the problem, when it was completely unnecessary…

I feel that the greater issue/problem is the question of why, in order to be an ally for social justice, Ms. Dolezal felt that she had to alter her appearance and deny her family in order to operate in that space when it was totally unnecessary to do so…

I don’t feel it’s a non-issue to discuss considering the ongoing discussions of race and representation. If anything, this could be looked at as Stockholm Syndrome in reverse, with Ms. Dolezal identifying with the oppressed (her adopted siblings in this case) as opposed to the oppressor (i.e. respectability pundits, etc.)…

Transgender and transracial are two completely different things. In fact, the use of the term transracial when it comes to Ms. Dolezal is incorrect as well since it actually refers to children of one “race” adopted by families of a different “race,” which is true of her siblings, but not Ms. Dolezal herself.

Think of it more akin to the situation when, say for instance, White parents adopt Chinese infants. More often than not, those children are never taught nor exposed to the culture they were born in, but rather raised completely in white culture. That lack of self-awareness can lead to a great deal of feelings of exclusion and lack of belonging… To any culture…

We come together, we fight for right…

Now when it comes to Ms. Dolezal, that level of appropriation could border on some sort of disorder. We’ve got to look at her family as to understand why she felt the need to take it that far…

We all know that notions of identity begins at an early age with the family being critical in that development…

The issue is not what has gone before pre-colonialism. No one is saying that every thing was hunky-dory before then. In addition, the empires stated (Aztec, Incan, Chinese, Egyptian, etc.) weren’t established by outside forces, which did not look like them, placing the way they look as the ideal. All of these empires, and more, were created well before the construct of “race.”

What we don’t address is the conflict of those who bought into the underlying construct of “race” and realizing that construct was a lie, especially when encountering the negative ramifications of that construct, and how some have dealt with that realization.

Did you see the president’s eyes though in his public statements? He has to walk that extreme bleeding edge. There was so much that he wanted to say, but deals with a pressure that none of us will ever know unless being in that position. I definitely would not want his job…

His words blame gun violence… But, his eyes let you know he wants to go off on the real problem…

Meanwhile, Jon Stewart (who I will truly miss when he steps down from the Daily Show even though I am looking forward to his replacement Trevor Noah) used his platform to eloquently and truly gives honest, real commentary as to the root of this tragedy.

Musician Sunn m’Cheaux appreciated what Stewart had done, but did not want to share it on his wall. His reasons were as such:

“Ideally, it should be the content of the message, not the color of the messenger that matters, but in the case of representing the Black experience, the deep seated aversion of Whites (and many conditioned persons of color) to accepting the intellectual and/or emotional testimony of Black intelligentsia and everyday people is more harmful than helpful towards the cause of anti-racism.

And this would be an obvious point if it took men to parrot the points of women for people to accept feminism. We could easily identify that pattern as misogynist. How then is waiting for Whites to parrot the points of Black people before accepting the points not racist? If you genuinely believe that #BlackLivesMatter, you should also believe that Black Voices Matter… and uplift them. #dontBSyourself”

I shared Stewart’s commentary on my wall. I agree with Brother Sunn’s statements. At the same time, as a teacher, I know that sometimes a student needs another student who grasps the concept taught to explain it to them… Because they sure as hell didn’t listen to the teacher…

Don’t get me wrong. I wish Obama went ham on this one, especially since this is his last year in office… True “no fudge” stage. But, damn if being the first African American president isn’t riding the bleeding edge of all this. I do not envy his position at all in this moment.

Still, if I had that type of platform, I would be a little less subtle in my condemnation of the real issue…

But, I don’t have that platform. I have another. I have this blog. I make these books. My purpose is to bring people together and get them talking (hopefully, in a positive and productive way), get them moving in a more collaborative, more compassionate way. That’s what I’m here to do.